From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.83]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17F00BC6C for ; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:42:03 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AgAAAJxFoEfC2fJWnmdsb2JhbACQJwEBAQEBBgIIBwoYgRSeRA X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.25,278,1199660400"; d="scan'208";a="6752573" Received: from anchor-post-36.mail.demon.net ([194.217.242.86]) by mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP; 30 Jan 2008 18:42:02 +0100 Received: from orion.metastack.com ([80.177.38.218]) by anchor-post-36.mail.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 4.67) id 1JKGwk-000NB2-KK for caml-list@yquem.inria.fr; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:42:02 +0000 Received: from countertenor (dynamic71.vpdn.csx.cam.ac.uk [131.111.7.71]) (authenticated bits=0) by orion.metastack.com (8.13.4/8.13.3) with ESMTP id m0UHQLAp001875 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5 bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:26:22 GMT From: "David Allsopp" To: "OCaml List" References: <1201439362.6302.15.camel@Blefuscu><200801300804.06946.ober.14@osu.edu><200801301326.45353.jon@ffconsultancy.com> <200801300917.13359.ober.14@osu.edu> Subject: RE: [Caml-list] Re: The OCaml Community (aka back fromthe Developer Days) Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:41:39 +0100 Organization: MetaStack Solutions Ltd. Message-ID: <020601c86367$64fb47f0$839017ac@countertenor> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 Thread-Index: AchjSK2EZrxNZu+XSuCiCkzmMGQoWwAHFZ3g In-Reply-To: <200801300917.13359.ober.14@osu.edu> X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.63 on 172.16.28.218 X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml:01 model:01 bram:98 caml-list:01 suggesting:02 fewer:02 sell:96 sell:96 unit:03 aka:04 scheme:05 economy:94 vim:05 vim:05 > It would make sense as a business venture when you'd throw in some economy > of scale. MS can sell visual studio for peanuts, and keep that business > unit out of the red, of course because they sell so many. > > For relatively small projects like OCaml, any "pay for a feature" scheme > would necessarily be out of reach of many customers. Vim does this very well with "sponsor a feature"[1] - all you need is a structured wish-list that people can mark a (financial) interest in. That way, if you want a feature, and so do other people, then there may be enough combined sponsorship to pay a (reasonable) amount for it. Bram only requires enough to pay for a basic salary so he can take time off work. While I have no idea how many people use Vim, I would imagine that it's rather fewer than MS Visual Studio suggesting that the finance model "works". David [1] http://www.vim.org/sponsor/index.php